Dean Hall (game designer)

Last updated

Dean Hall
Born (1981-05-14) 14 May 1981 (age 43) [1]
Oamaru, New Zealand
Other names"Rocket"
Alma mater University of Otago
Occupation Video game designer
OrganisationRocketwerkz
Known for DayZ

Dean "Rocket" Hall (born 14 May 1981) is a video game designer from New Zealand. He is best known for creating the zombie apocalypse PC game DayZ, which began as a mod and was later developed into its own game under the same title. [2] Hall left the DayZ development team in 2014 to found his own studio, Rocketwerkz. [3]

Contents

Hall was a Commissioned Officer of the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals in the New Zealand Army [4] and attended survival training in Brunei where he came up with the basic idea for DayZ . [2] [5]

Early life and education

Hall grew up in Oamaru, New Zealand, and attended Waitaki Boys' High School. He played role-playing games with fellow New Zealander Chris Butcher, who later became the Technical Director at Bungie working on Halo and Destiny . [6] Hall started video game development on an Amiga personal computer that his parents purchased him as a child. [4]

Military service

Dean Hall
AllegianceNew Zealand
Service/branch Royal New Zealand Air Force, New Zealand Army [7]
Years of service2000 –2005
2009–2011 [7]
Rank Lieutenant
Unit Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals

Hall served as a commissioned officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force for five years, completing a degree at the University of Otago under a Defense Scholarship. [4] In 2009 Hall re-enlisted in the New Zealand Army and was posted on an exchange program with the Singapore Armed Forces. [8] Hall was inspired by his efforts on survival training [8] and in using video games as a method to train soldiers in the emotional reactions they may face, including him pitching the concept to leadership within the Army. When interest was not shown, Hall stated he decided to add zombies and release it publicly. [9]

Hall was posted to the Singapore Armed Forces on an exchange program during which he completed his survival training in Brunei. [10] His experiences on this trip formed the basis for his ideas with the development of the mod. Hall was not used to the diet during his period of deployment, and this became a further problem as the training progressed. He ran out of food during the survival component, eventually resorting to trying to eat rotten fish and ferns. [10] By the end of his training, Hall weighed 25 kilograms less [10] and required surgery to repair his injuries. [4]

Video game career

After leaving the Air Force, Hall was employed as a producer at Sidhe Interactive in Wellington, New Zealand, [4] and worked on Speed Racer: The Videogame . [11] Hall briefly left the industry to return to the army before returning for a contract at Bohemia Interactive to work on Arma 3 . During this time, Hall created DayZ, a zombie survival horror mod for the Arma 2 . After the success of the mod Hall started work at Bohemia in the position of Project Lead of the standalone version of DayZ . [8] [9] DayZ mod was nominated for the Online Innovation Award at the GDC Online Awards 2012. [12]

In November 2014, Hall left Bohemia Interactive to found New Zealand game studio, RocketWerkz, [13] and announced the debut title Ion at E3 2015. [14] Development of Ion was later cancelled. Hall announced Stationeers at EGX Rezzed 2017. [15] The game was released on Steam in early access on 12 December 2017. [16] The game draws inspiration from Space Station 13.

Views on the video game industry

In 2012, Hall stated that the seventh generation of game consoles were at the end of their lives, and that this had resulted in the PC providing more innovative games for the market. [17] Hall believed this would result in the next generation of consoles competing for the ability to cater to this desire for innovation as seen on the PC. [17] Hall has also been critical of the traditional publishing model for video games, turning down many offers to publish DayZ and asking what value publishers provide in a modern context. [18]

Personal life

Mountaineering

Hall is an accomplished mountaineer, having climbed Mount Cook in New Zealand. In May 2013, he summitted Mount Everest, making him the 42nd New Zealander to do so. [19] [20] [21] [22] He has stated that his experiences mountaineering have also formed part of the inspiration for his game design work.

Games developed

TitleYear ReleasedNotes
Speed Racer: The Videogame 2008Producer; Developed by Sidhe Interactive
DayZ (mod)21 February 2013
DayZ 13 December 2018Project Lead; Developed by Bohemia Interactive
Ion[Cancelled]Developed by RocketWerkz and Improbable
Out of Ammo15 September 2016 (VR Only)Developed by RocketWerkz
Out of Ammo: Death Drive17 August 2017 (VR Only)Developed by RocketWerkz
Stationeers12 December 2017 Early Access In Development by RocketWerkz
Icarus 3 December 2021Developed by RocketWerkz
Art of the Rail TBA Early Access In Development by RocketWerkz

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bohemia Interactive</span> Czech video game development studio

Bohemia Interactive a.s. is a Czech video game developer and publisher based in Prague. The company focuses on creating military simulation games such as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the Arma series. It is also known for having worked on a game conversion of the DayZ mod created for Arma 2.

<i>Arma 2</i> 2009 video game

Arma 2 is a 2009 tactical shooter simulation video game developed and published by Bohemia Interactive for Microsoft Windows. It is the second main entry in the Arma series and the third installment in the series overall. The game is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Chernarus during a civil war between the Chernarussian government and communist revolutionaries, and follows escalating tensions when the United States Marine Corps is deployed to defeat the rebels.

Waitaki Boys' High School is a secondary school for boys located in the northern part of the town of Oamaru, Otago, New Zealand, with day and boarding facilities, and was founded in 1883. As of 2020, it has a school roll of approximately 400 students.

<i>Zombie Panic! Source</i> 2007 video game

Zombie Panic! Source is a cooperative survival-horror Half-Life 2 first-person shooter modification. It is the sequel to the Half-Life mod Zombie Panic. Set in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, players start as a small group of survivors attempting to stay alive. Each map will have its own objectives to complete and win the round or survive by a period of time.

<i>Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead</i> 2010 video game

Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead is a standalone expansion pack to Bohemia Interactive's tactical shooter Arma 2. Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead includes three new multiplayer maps, new vehicles and equipment, new factions, along with a new campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Survival game</span> Video game genre

Survival games are a subgenre of action games which are often set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by finding the resources necessary to manage hunger, thirst, disease and/or mental state. Many survival games are based on randomly or procedurally generated persistent environments; more recently, survival games are often playable online, allowing players to interact in a single world. Survival games are generally open-ended with no set goals and often closely related to the survival horror genre, where the player must survive within a supernatural setting, such as a zombie apocalypse.

<i>Project Zomboid</i> Open world survival horror game

Project Zomboid is an open-world, isometric video game developed by British and Canadian independent developer The Indie Stone. The game is set in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested exclusion zone of the fictional Knox Country, Kentucky, United States, where the player is challenged to survive for as long as possible before inevitably dying. It was one of the first five games released on the alpha funding section of the gaming portal Desura.

Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges. A variant of the mode requires that the player last for a certain finite amount of time or number of waves, after which victory is achieved and the mode ends. Survival mode has been compared to the gameplay of classic arcade games, where players face off against increasingly stronger waves of enemies. This mode was intended to give the game a definite and sometimes sudden ending, so that other players could then play the arcade game as well.

<i>No More Room in Hell</i> 2011 video game

No More Room in Hell is a cooperative first person survival horror video game, created by Matt "Maxx" Kazan and initially developed as a modification on Valve's Source game engine. Set in a zombie apocalypse, the player assumes the role of one of eight remaining survivors, with a focus on co-operation and survival. The game can be played through "Objective" or "Survival" mode. It is heavily inspired by George Romero's Living Dead series, with the title being a reference to Dawn of the Dead, specifically the line "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.", and some characters being references to other films such as American Psycho and The Big Lebowski.

<i>DayZ</i> (mod) Arma 2 mod

DayZ is a multiplayer open world survival third-person shooter modification designed by Dean Hall for the 2009 tactical shooter video game Arma 2 and its 2010 expansion pack, Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead. The mod places the player in the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has infected most of the population, turning people into violent zombies. As a survivor with limited resources, the player must scavenge the world for supplies such as food, water, weapons and medicine, while killing or avoiding both zombies and other players, and sometimes non-player characters, in an effort to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Infestation: Survivor Stories was an open world zombie video game developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by OP Productions. Infestation: Survivor Stories features both first-person and third-person shooting perspectives. The game offers players the option of killing zombies or playing against other users (PvP).

<i>DayZ</i> (video game) 2018 survival video game

DayZ is a multiplayer only survival video game developed and published by Bohemia Interactive. It is the standalone game based on the mod of the same name for Arma 2. Following a five-year-long early access period for Windows, the game was officially released in December 2018, and was released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2019.

<i>Dying Light</i> 2015 video game

Dying Light is a 2015 survival horror video game developed by Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game's story follows an undercover agent named Kyle Crane who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a fictional Middle Eastern city called Harran. It features an enemy-infested, open-world city with a dynamic day–night cycle, in which zombies are slow and clumsy during daytime but become extremely aggressive at night. The gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and parkour, allowing players to choose fight or flight when presented with dangers. The game also features an asymmetrical multiplayer mode, and a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode.

Rust is a multiplayer survival video game developed by Facepunch Studios. It was first released in early access in December 2013 and received its full release in February 2018. Rust is available on Windows and macOS. Console versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One developed in conjunction with Double Eleven were released in May 2021. Rust was initially created as a clone of DayZ, a popular mod for ARMA 2, with crafting elements akin to those in Minecraft.

<i>Space Station 13</i> 2003 multiplayer video game

Space Station 13, often shortened to SS13, is a top-down tile-based action role-playing multiplayer video game running on the freeware BYOND game engine, originally released in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EGX (expo)</span> Video game trade fair

EGX is trade fair for video games organised by Gamer Network and held annually in the United Kingdom and Germany.

<i>Four Last Things</i> (video game) 2017 point-and-click adventure video game

Four Last Things is a point-and-click adventure video game. Made by Joe Richardson, it came out on 23 February 2017 for Windows, Android, and iOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayerUnknown</span> Irish video game developer

Brendan Greene, better known as PlayerUnknown, is an Irish video game developer. He is best known for his work on PUBG: Battlegrounds. He left active development on the game to form PUBG Special Projects and PlayerUnknown Productions in March 2019.

Icarus is a session-based survival video game by developer RocketWerkz. Created by Dean Hall, it was released on 4 December 2021 for Windows on the Steam platform.

References

  1. ↑ Hall, Dean "Rocket". "Rocket – profile overview". dayzmod.com/forum. Retrieved 14 August 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. 1 2 Benedetti, Winda (8 August 2012). "'DayZ' eats up a million zombie fans, soon to be a full game". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Mack, Ben (6 December 2016). "Blasting off: RocketWerkz scales up with Tencent investment and big game project". MSNBC . Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 McNeilly, Hamish (15 August 2012). "Game's success dazes designer". Otago Daily Times . Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  5. ↑ Campbell, Colin (1 August 2012). "How DayZ Came to Life". IGN. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  6. ↑ Rutledge, Daniel (8 September 2014). "Destiny technical director Chris Butcher interview". TV3 (New Zealand). Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  7. 1 2 Hall, Dean "Rocket". "Rocket – Linkedin profile". LinkedIn . Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 Gera, Emily (15 June 2012). "Walking with the Dead: How war shaped 'DayZs zombies". The Verge. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  9. 1 2 Harman, Stace (21 August 2012). "DayZ's Dean Hall: Rocket Man Rising". Eurogamer . Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 Hall, Charlie (8 June 2012). "Day Z – Interview with Dean 'Rocket' Hall, the Game's Creator". PC Gamer. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  11. ↑ Hall, Dean. "Rocket – IMDb profile". IMDb . Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  12. ↑ Cocke, Taylor (26 July 2012). "GDC Online Awards Nominees Highlight the Best Online Games of the Past Year". GameSpy . Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  13. ↑ @rocket2guns (9 December 2014). "Looking for programmers, artists, etc... for my new studio @RocketWerkz. These roles initially based Dunedin, NZ. Email yolo@rocketwerkz.com" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ↑ Hall, Charlie (16 June 2015). "Dean Hall reveals more about Ion, responds to accusations he abandoned DayZ (correction)". Polygon . Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  15. ↑ Purchese, Robert (30 March 2017). "Dean Hall reveals his new game Stationeers at EGX Rezzed". Eurogamer . Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "Stationeers on Steam".
  17. 1 2 Scammell, David (21 August 2012). "How DayZ Came to Life". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  18. ↑ Akerman, Nick (16 August 2012). "DayZ creator rejects interest from "many, many publishers"". VG247 . Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  19. ↑ Mathews, Josh (18 August 2012). "gamescom 2012: DayZ Interview With Dean Hall". The Game Jar. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  20. ↑ Hall, Dean "Rocket". "RocketKiwi – Tumblr post". Tumblr . Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  21. ↑ Tipps, Seth (27 May 2013). "DayZ creator scales Everest". develop-online.net.
  22. ↑ Ryan, Rebecca (31 May 2013). "Living Everest dream". Oamaru Mail . Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.